Meade threatened to be delisted by NASDAQ

gary · #1 13-08-2008, 08:23 PM

Astronomy industry news. Two Press Releases by Meade Instruments.

Quote:

Press Release

Source: Meade Instruments Corporation

Meade Instruments Receives Nasdaq Deficiency Notice Related to Minimum Bid Price Rule

Tuesday August 12, 4:01 pm ET

IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 12, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Meade Instruments Corp. (NasdaqGM:MEAD - News), a leading designer and manufacturer of optical products, including telescopes, binoculars and microscopes, today announced that on August 6, 2008, the Company received a letter from The Nasdaq Stock Market stating that for the previous 30 consecutive business days, the bid price of the Company's common stock closed below the minimum $1.00 per share and is no longer in compliance with Marketplace Rule 4450(a)(5) (the ``Minimum Bid Price Rule''). In accordance with Marketplace Rule 4450 (e)(2), the Company will be provided 180 calendar days, or until February 2, 2009, to regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Rule.

If at any time before February 2, 2009, the bid price of the Company's stock closes at $1.00 per share or more for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days, Nasdaq will notify the Company that it has achieved compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Rule. If the Company does not regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Rule by February 2, 2009, Nasdaq will notify the Company that its common stock will be delisted from The Nasdaq Global Market.

Full press release here -
http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/080812/148511.html

Meade stock is currently trading at around US$0.73 a share.

In another press release today, Meade announced that after 27 years of
continuous production that they would drop their Schmidt-Cassegrain
optics in favour of proprietary optics.

Full press release here -
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080812/20080812006334.html?.v=1

Kevnool (Kev) · #2 13-08-2008, 08:32 PM

Still make nice instruments and eyepieces tho, but thems the breaks in the stocks ...one day your someone the next day your nothin...cheers Kev.

coldspace · #3 13-08-2008, 08:59 PM

Hopefully they claw back. Its happening to lots of companies here and over in the US. We are allafter that Chinese bargain, and in the long run it will be our home-grown inventions/companies that will fail. Then we all will suffer inferrior crap as our only choice.
Good decision to stop making standard SCT. My 200R kicks butt visually and when imaging. Almost as sharp as a 12 inch APO if you could buy one.
Now they have production running it would be pointless to make both versions of the SCT.
Hopefully they keep afloat and keep up the good work for us poorer souls

Matt.

Babalyon 5 · #4 13-08-2008, 09:23 PM

Yes, lets do hope the get it under control. As Ive said before, the Meade bashers have no idea! If it weren't for Meade we would not be looking through telescopes of the quality and price that we have today, instead we would still be buying Tascos'(not knocking, we all started somewhere) and looking through milky objectives with poor colour, resolution and detail. Celestron went the same way and it took Synta to buy them up and bring them back, however, their software and hand controllers are no match for Meade stuff even now. And same for me as coldspace below, inferior crap is not an option.

Chippy (Nick) · #5 13-08-2008, 10:46 PM

Sure hope they pull through. They make some nice products that it would be a shame to see disappear, and it's always nice to have options (and competition). The more the better for us. Guess that Chinese competition is really starting to bite!

Ian Robinson · #6 13-08-2008, 11:16 PM

So Celestron will now be the only ones making commercial SCTs for the amateur market.

Good.

Ric · #7 13-08-2008, 11:16 PM

Hope it all works out for them.

And yes I love my LX200R as well

Ian Robinson · #8 13-08-2008, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Babalyon 5

Yes, lets do hope the get it under control. As Ive said before, the Meade bashers have no idea! If it weren't for Meade we would not be looking through telescopes of the quality and price that we have today, instead we would still be buying Tascos'(not knocking, we all started somewhere) and looking through milky objectives with poor colour, resolution and detail. Celestron went the same way and it took Synta to buy them up and bring them back, however, their software and hand controllers are no match for Meade stuff even now. And same for me as coldspace below, inferior crap is not an option.

Rubbish - Celestron would just have been much bigger and many firms who Meade squashed would still be making quality scopes.

marki · #9 14-08-2008, 12:16 AM

I must agree with the gents below. I love my 200R and the controller has huge capacity is highly functional and is very user friendly. But lets not start a brand war here as there never are any winners. Competition between meade and celstron has driven the cost of some pretty impressive technology right down, so much so that the average amature has access to it at a reasonable price. Meade's business ethics may not always be the most noble but you cant logically blame the scopes for that. I would certainly like to see them survive but hey different strokes for different folks and all that kind of thing.

Mark

Ric · #10 14-08-2008, 09:52 AM

Both Celestron & Meade have done amateur astronomy a great service and as Mark said they have brought telescopes down to a reasonable price and within everyones realms.

I own a 1976 C8 orange tube and the LX200R 12" and both deliver wonderful views and both since new. If these two manufacturers had never started up I hate to think where we would be today and how many of us could actually afford to own a quality scope.

Cheers